Bolts rookie receiver has earned trust

San Diego Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen, left, makes a touchdown catch in the end zone as Indianapolis Colts free safety Delano Howell, right, defends during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 14, 2013, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)
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San Diego Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen, left, makes a touchdown catch in the end zone as Indianapolis Colts free safety Delano Howell, right, defends during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 14, 2013, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)
/ AP

Keenan Allen ran down the sideline and, as he turned inward upon entering the powder blue grass of the end zone, crossed in front of Indianapolis Colts cornerback Vontae Davis.

At the same time, Colts safety Delano Howell, who was helping cover Allen, took one too many steps toward nearby Antonio Gates.

That’s when Philip Rivers lofted a ball to the spot it needed to be caught. Howell could not recover. Davis was a step behind. Allen was the only one able to make a play on the ball, which he did for the game’s only touchdown.

That Allen had the awareness to recognize what had happened in the coverage and know where Rivers would throw belied the experience of a 21-year-old playing his sixth game as an NFL wide receiver.

It was a seminal moment in the development of an offense for both the now and the foreseeable future. It was in that moment that anyone paying attention knew Rivers had found his new Vincent Jackson.

But it was before that – and even before Allen’s 115-yard game and first pro touchdown the previous week in Oakland – that Philip Rivers knew.

There are moments when you’re talking to Rivers that you can tell it’s about to get all tingly.

It is a privilege to be that close to that level of excitement.

One such moment came about an hour after the Chargers beat the Dallas Cowboys last month as Rivers was walking through a hallway beneath Qualcomm Stadium. His eyes grew wide. He got that smile that smothers his face. He leaned in close.

“I knew right there,” Rivers said, “I could trust him.”

It was as if Rivers saw the possibility, perhaps the future, in his mind’s eye as he recalled the 31-yard pass he completed to Keenan Allen, in which Allen expertly came back on Dallas cornerback Morris Claiborne.

“I’ve seen him doing it in practice,” Rivers said that afternoon. “But that was like, ‘All right … I can throw him that ball now. It gives you the confidence to throw him that ball.”

It’s a throw that leaves the hand before the receiver has made his break to the ball or is even looking for it. The quarterback knows a whole bunch can go wrong and only one thing can go right – a receiver makes the right play.

Allen did.

A rookie.

“He’s going to be good,” Rivers said that day. “He’s going to be real good.”

In the three-week span that began with the Dallas game, Allen has caught 20 passes for 302 yards and the two TDs.

He is the first Chargers rookie since Don Norton in 1960 to have 100 yards receiving in consecutive games. He is the first Charger at all to string together successive 100-yard receiving games since Jackson did so in December 2009.

And if you think it’s unfair or premature to compare Allen to Jackson, understand the assessment is more about the instinct and skill Allen has already shown than it is about his potential.

His potential hasn’t been realized, but his ability is upon us.

After quarterback, wide receiver is generally considered by football people to be the toughest position at which to make the jump from college to the NFL.

The competition is bigger and faster and, while rules have restricted defenders' ability to manhandle, it is also more physical. The game plans are more complex, the routes have to be more precise. And quarterbacks don’t have time to wait for a kid to learn on the job.

Allen, who fell to the third round due to a knee injury and ensuing poor pre-draft workouts, was sort of forced into action – starting in Week 3 after Malcom Floyd suffered a season-ending neck injury at Philadelphia. But he had begun to show in practice that he was getting it.

As inconsistent as any rookie throughout training camp and the preseason, the Chargers players and staff noticed the regular season brought an Allen that was taking two steps forward without the accompanying step back.

What you have to be impressed by, too, is Allen’s confidence. It’s similar, if less abrasive, than what Jackson had from the time he arrived in San Diego.